Football Team

12/9/2020

I am a member of the Varsity Blues Football Team.

Football has been a big part of my life. It’s instilled in me values of teamwork, hard work, perseverance, and dedication to your craft. It’s taught me a lot about myself, and about dealing with both success and adversity. 

During my career, I sadly broke my leg during a game. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I resolved to find another way. If the mechanics of my body presented new constraints, then I’d just have to engineer a new solution. I started coaching my teammates, being a more vocal leader, spending extra time on film, and learning the game from different viewpoints. I’m proud to say that although I wouldn’t play another down that season, I was still at every practice, every game, and continued serving as a captain for my brothers. By pivoting my frame of reference and extending beyond the purely physical, I could still actively play a role in our team’s success. 

Although not directly related to engineering, football still has its own set of objectives and constraints that require me to be efficient with my movements if I want the optimal result on the field. That is not to say that this can only be done once. Every time I mess up, I continue to learn and improve my movements on the field as I iterate, just like in engineering.